Country blues legend Robert Belfour returns to the
Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival.

Los Lobos
August 12

Complimentary Program Guide

DISCOVER PASS IS NOT REQUIRED FOR PARK ENTRY FOR CENTRUM EVENTS

Welcome

Season Finale

Dear Music Lovers,

featuring
I am thrilled to be on board
this year as Artistic Director of
the Port Townsend Acoustic
Blues Festival and Workshop
at Centrum. As such, not
only have I recruited some of
this country’s most renowned
teachers for our musical

students, Program Director
Mary Hilts and I have put
together a spectacular array

Daryl Davis

of talent for those of you who

do not play music, but prefer to listen or dance. I will personally
guarantee that the Blues will top your list after attending the stellar
performances we’ve arranged to present to you in the clubs and

Concerts for Kids
Adults $5

the McCurdy Pavilion, regardless of your musical preferences. I

Kids Free

further promise all who attend an exhilarating good time filled with

Tickets available at
the door only (ages 3
and up)

fun and a release of the Blues in all of us!!!

See you there,

Daryl Davis, Artistic Director

Lightnin’ Wells

Free Fridays at the Fort
The lunchtime concert series on the lawn of the
Nora Porter Commons. All events take place
from noon to 1 PM, and are open to the public at
no cost.
July 27: Jazz Port Townsend Participant Big Band
conducted by Clarence Acox

Fort Worden Chapel
11:00 AM

August 3:
John Miller Country Blues

Friday, August 3 Lightnin’ Wells

Ahmad Baahabar & Gary Lilley
Blues and Word

Centrum thanks the
Congdon-Hanson Family for their
support of Youth Programs

Monday-Friday, Noon to 4 pm except performance days when box office closes at 2 pm
(Tickets also available at venue box office one hour prior to show)
For hearing impaired, vision, or mobility issues, please call Centrum at 360.385.3102, ext. 110 for assistance.
A $1 per ticket processing fee is added to in-person orders, and $3 per ticket processing fee is added to phone and web orders.

Littlefield Green—abuts McCurdy Pavilion at Fort

Children under 18 admitted free (except Los Lobos), but all tickets must be reserved.

Worden State Park. Gates open for picnicking for Pavilion and

Please no babes-in-arms or strollers for indoor performances.

Littlefield Green performances one hour prior to show time. Beer
and wine are available for purchase at Centrum’s beer garden.

BUILDING 204 –

Programs and artists subject to change.

is located at Fort Worden State Park with

several large rooms ideal for dances.

Parking
Free parking in lots and on-street parking is available for all
venues.

Visitor Services
The Port Townsend Visitor Information Center, located at the Park & Ride lot (440 12th Street, Port Townsend, WA) can help visitors
with directions, accommodations, and other important information. You may also visit the Port Townsend tourism website at www.
enjoypt.com or call 360.385.2722, or 888.ENJOYPT (888.365.6978).

Biographies (alphabetical order)
DARYL DAVIS – ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
The son of a Foreign Service
officer, Daryl Davis is a
native of Chicago, but was
raised in Europe and Africa.
He earned a bachelor of
music degree from Howard
University, where he was
a member of the Howard
University Choir and Jazz
Vocal Ensemble. In addition
to being a vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist, and composer,
Daryl Davis is a celebrated lecturer, actor, and author of
Klan-Destine Relationships: A Black Man’s Odyssey in
the Ku Klux Klan, the story of his quixotic journey into
the heart of the KKK. As a performer, Davis has worked
with Elvis Presley’s Jordanaires, The Coasters, B.B.
King, Chuck Berry, Percy Sledge, and many others. He
was the featured pianist on Cephas & Wiggins’ 1992
Grammy Award winning album, Flip Flop and Fly. In
1985, boogie-woogie pioneer Pinetop Perkins selected
Daryl to succeed him in the piano and vocal slot of the
Muddy Waters Legendary Blues Band. Daryl’s album,
American Roots, received the 2005 Washington Area
Music Association Award for Best Roots Music Artist,
and the 2006 and 2008 WAMA award for Best Blues
Instrumentalist. He is the recipient of the Dizzy Gillespie
Baha’i Award for Racial Harmony Through the Arts,
and the highly prestigious American Ethical Union’s
Elliott-Black Award. Daryl Davis was appointed Artistic
Director of Centrum’s Port Townsend Acoustic Blues
Festival in October, succeeding Corey Harris.
AHMAD BAABAHAR – GUITAR
Born in New York City and
raised internationally living
in Canada, England, Hawaii
and Seattle, Ahmad was
exposed to a wide range of
musical influences in his family
home. As a child, Ahmad was
privileged to watch and meet
many of the Blues greats
introduced to him through his
mother’s love of live music. He found creative magic with
an acoustic guitar and his own voice and expressing his
varied life experiences through words and music. He is
a Port Townsend favorite and appears regularly at Sirens
Pub, the Uptown Pub, Ajax Café and the Upstage
Restaurant as well as various Seattle venues including
the Folklife Festival.

Tickets: 800.746.1982
www.centrum.org

BRUCE “SUNPIE” BARNES - ACCORDION
Bruce “Sunpie” Barnes is
a veteran musician, park
ranger, actor, former high
school biology teacher, and
former NFL player with the
Kansas City Chiefs. His
career has taken him far
and wide, travelling to more
than 35 countries playing
his own style of blues, zydeco and Afro-Louisiana music
incorporating Caribbean and African influenced rhythms
and melodies. He is a multi-instrumentalist playing
piano, percussion, and harmonica - and he learned to
play accordion from some of the best, including Fernest
Arceneaux, John Delafose, and Clayton Sampy. With his
musical group Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots, he
has played festivals and concerts across New Orleans
and the US, as well as internationally, and they have
recorded five critically acclaimed CDs.
TERRY BEAN – HARMONICA
Terry “Harmonica” Bean began
playing guitar and harmonica
as a child, and eventually
began performing at family
gatherings and house parties.
Terry decided to get serious
about the blues in 1988 after
attending the Delta Blues Festival in Greenville. He went
there to see Robert Junior Lockwood, who played
with Terry’s idol, harmonica legend Little Walter, but
inadvertently fell in with the Greenville blues scene. Terry
has maintained a busy performance schedule as both
a solo artist and with the Terry Harmonica Bean Blues
Band, performing at festivals across Mississippi as well
as in Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee, and
at clubs across the region.
ROBERT BELFOUR – GUITAR
Robert Belfour was
born in the hill country
in the northern part of
Mississippi. The region
has a distinctly different
culture than the more
famous Mississippi Delta,
and the blues from the
region is strong and
unique, mesmerizing and hypnotic. Like most of the
other accomplished performers from the area, Robert
was submerged in the area’s rich musical heritage.
Robert’s first memory is that of his father playing a
resonator guitar in a style similar to that of Charlie
Patton’s. In the 1980s, Robert began playing on Beale
Street performing at the Rum Boogie, the Hard Rock
Café, and B.B. King’s Club. In 1994 he had eight songs
featured on the compilation album The Spirit Lives On,
Deep South Country Blues and Spirituals in the 1990s.
This led him to Fat Possum Records and his first album,
What’s Wrong With You, which was released in 2000.

Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival
MARK BROOKS – BASS
New Orleans native
Mark Brooks attended
Southern University in
Baton Rouge, where
he pursued a music
degree along with one
of his close friends,
Branford Marsalis. Mark
has played and toured
with an array of artists,
including Dr. John, The Neville Brothers, Henry
Butler, Charles and Aaron Neville’s Ensembles, Lou
Rawls, Fats Domino, Ellis Hall Preservation Hall Jazz
Band and Harry Connick Sr. Mark is known for his
mastery of different styles ranging from rhythm &
blues to contemporary jazz, traditional jazz, blues,
and gospel. Mark has to his credit numerous
recordings and appearances on local and national
television shows, including appearing on screen
and the soundtrack for the Clint Eastwood film, The
Bridges of Madison County, as well as LIVE! Regis
and Kathie Lee and the movie Ray directed by
Taylor Hackford, on which he worked closely with
actors Jamie Foxx and Terrence Howard.
ELAN CHALFORD – FIDDLE
Violinist, fiddler and
composer Elan
Chalford has played
the stage fiddler in
Foxfire, Best Little
Whorehouse in Texas,
Fiddler on the Roof,
Phantom of the Opera,
A Christmas Carol,
Robber Bridegroom
and Die Fleidermaus. Additionally, he has been
Concertmaster for productions of South Pacific, The
Mikado, A Most Happy Fellow, and HMS Pinafore.
He has also held Concertmaster positions with
the Clearwater Symphony Orchestra, the Masters’
Chamber Orchestra, and the Summit Orchestra
and Singers. Elan is an award-winning fiddler having
won first prize in the Florida State Fiddlers’ Contest
and first prize in the Twin Fiddle Division. His fiddle
recordings include Fluke, Don’t Bet Your Money on
the Shanghai and A Fiddler’s Ear.
BILLY CITRIN – MANDOLIN/FIDDLE
A native of St. Louis,
Missouri, Billy Citrin
grew up with a
background of formal
study in classical
violin. Later, inspired
and influenced by
Sonny Terry, Sonny
Boy Williamson, Bob
Dylan, John Mayall
and Stephan Grappelli, Billy would add acoustic
guitar, harmonica, and mandolin to his arsenal,
developing proficiency on all four instruments.
Always creative, Billy fashioned his own unique
style of mandolin blues which he describes as a

hybrid of country and blues. In addition to gigs
and television commercials in St. Louis, Billy spent
two years touring the Netherlands, performing
across the United States as member of SPAH
(Society for the Preservation and Advancement
of Harmonica) at its conventions, and doing
mandolin seminars with renowned mandolinist
Rich DelGrosso in New York.
GARY COPELAND LILLEY – POET
Gary Copeland Lilley is
a North Carolina native
who earned his MFA
from the Warren Wilson
College Program for
Writers. His publications
include four books of
poetry, of which the
most recent is “Alpha
Zulu,” from Ausable/Copper Canyon Press. He has
taught poetry and creative writing in the scholar
program of Young Chicago Authors, the Great
Smokies Writing Program at the University of North
Carolina-Asheville, and at Warren Wilson College.
Gary has been a poet-in-residence at The Poetry
Center of Chicago, and a visiting writer-lecturer
at Colby College and at the Institute of American
Indian Art.
THE CROW QUILL NIGHT OWLS
The Crow Quill Night
Owls are a Port
Townsend-based band
that plays jug band, jazz,
and string band music
of the 1920s and1930s.
They were formed in
2007 by guitarist Kit
“Stymee” Stovepipe and
tenor banjoist Windy
City Alex. They’ve since
added Baylin Adahere on washtub bass. The group
fluctuates from a duo to a six-person band and
often features members of other bands in similar
genres. One of the most popular bands in Port
Townsend, they have been featured in festivals
all over the Northwest including, Seattle’s Folklife.
Snake Liquor is the second full length release from
The Crow Quill Night Owls.
GUY DAVIS – GUITAR
Guy Davis is a musician,
composer, actor, director,
and writer, but most
importantly, Guy Davis
is a bluesman. He has
dedicated himself to
reviving the traditions
of acoustic blues and
bringing them to as many listeners as possible
through the material of the great blues masters,
African American stories, and his own original songs,
stories and performance pieces. Throughout his
life, Guy has had overlapping interests in music
and acting. In 1993, he performed off-Broadway

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival
as legendary blues player Robert Johnson in
Robert Johnson: Trick the Devil. He received rave
reviews and became the 1993 winner of the Blues
Foundation’s “Keeping the Blues Alive Award.”
In 2012, Guy released an audio play called The
Adventures of Fishey Waters: In Bed with the Blues.
It is an interesting compilation of “historical” tales in
the form of a play accompanied by Guy in song.
RICH DelGROSSO – MANDOLIN
Writer/teacher/
performer Rich
DelGrosso is widely
regarded as the
leading exponent of
mandolin blues. For
more than twenty
years he has written articles for Blues Revue,
Living Blues, Mandolin Magazine, Frets, and Sing
Out!, and has published mandolin and guitar
instruction books for Hal Leonard Publishing. He
has presented workshops across the U.S. and
Europe, earning him a Keeping the Blues Alive
Award from the Blues Foundation in Memphis.
Rich’s many performances, recordings, and
festival appearances have garnered him five Blues
Music Award nominations. Four of the five were
for Best Instrumentalist-Other for his mandolin
work, and the other, in 2009, for his recording
Live From Bluesville, which was nominated for
Acoustic Album of the Year; a recorded live jam
session with BMA nominees and winners Fiona
Boyes and Mookie Brill at XM radio’s B.B.King’s
Bluesville.
GRANT DERMODY –
HARMONICA
Grant Dermody is a
harmonica player, singer,
songwriter, and teacher
from Seattle, Washington.
He has performed with
blues legends Leon Bibb,
Honeyboy Edwards, Robert
Lowery, Big Joe Duskin, John Dee Holeman,
and Cephas & Wiggins. As a member of The
Improbabillies, whose 1998 self-titled CD
made a serious splash in the old-time world,
Grant brought a unique blues sensibility and
an innovative harmonica style to that genre. He
has played on several of Seattle based singer/
songwriter Jim Page’s recordings, and was a
guest artist on Dan Crary’s Renaissance of the
Steel String Guitar. A dedicated mentor of the
instrument, Grant has taught harmonica for
many years in both private and group settings
nationwide to students of all ages.

Tickets: 800.746.1982
www.centrum.org

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

ARI EISINGER – GUITAR
Country blues and
ragtime guitarist Ari
Eisinger has toured
across the U.S. and
performed in the U.K.
and Japan, sharing the
bill along the way with
artists like Doc Watson,
John Jackson, Dave
Van Ronk, Paul Geremia and Taj Mahal. He has led
guitar classes both in the U.S. and the U.K., and
he is a featured instructor for Stefan Grossman’s
Guitar Workshop. His interpretations of the songs
of masters like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis
Minnie and Reverend Gary Davis celebrate the
styles of these pioneering guitar heroes, and are
brought vibrantly back to life.
ELEANOR ELLIS - GUITAR
Louisiana native Eleanor
Ellis has performed
at clubs, festivals and
concerts in the United
States, Canada and
Europe. She has also
traveled and played with
the late gospel street
singer Flora Molton, bluesman Archie Edwards, and
sometimes accompanied Delta Blues great Eugene
Powell. She is a founding member of the DC Blues
Society and the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage
Foundation, and has written about the blues for
several publications. A bluegrass jam session led to
a musical collaboration with “Delta Rambler” Hazel
Schlueter, and Eleanor later wound up playing standup bass in two bluegrass bands, the Green Valley
Cutups and Bill Malone’s Hill Country Ramblers. In
addition, Eleanor is producer and editor of the video
documentary Blues Houseparty, which features
well-known Piedmont blues musicians such as John
Jackson, John Cephas and Archie Edwards.
MARY FLOWER – GUITAR
Mary Flower is renowned for
a uniquely personal vision
of roots music that blends
ragtime, acoustic blues, and
folk - technically dazzling yet
grounded in the down-toearth simplicity of early 20th
century American music.
With eight albums under
her belt, Mary has earned rave reviews from critics
and audiences alike for her unassuming vocals, and
her mastery of the difficult Piedmont blues guitar
style. She continues to be a highly regarded teacher
whose knowledge and technical mastery have
inspired students at the Augusta Heritage Center
and the Swannanoa Gathering, among many other
educational venues. Mary has played shows all over
North America as a regular on the blues and folk
festival circuit, including performances at Merlefest,
the Kerrville Folk Fest and the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival
BILLY FLYNN - DELTA GUITAR/SLIDE
Over the last 40 years, Billy
Flynn has played with a wealth
of Chicago blues legends
including Jimmy Rogers, Jr.
Wells, Otis Rush, Pinetop
Perkins, Buddy Guy, Jimmy
Dawkins, Koko Taylor, Willie
Kent and countless others.
Billy was tapped to play
guitar for the soundtrack
for the major motion picture Cadillac Records, which
chronicled the heyday of the legendary Chicago blues
label, Chess Records. As part of the soundtrack,
Billy backed Beyonce in her 2010 Grammy Winning
recording of Etta James’ “At Last.” In addition to his
virtuosic guitar playing, Billy also plays mandolin, banjo,
lap steel, harmonica, bass, drums, piano or just about
anything else that produces sound, including electric
sitar. Billy currently records and performs with the Cash
Box Kings, and also produced their second album,
Black Night Falling.
ANGELA HILL – GOSPEL CHOIR/VOCAL
Angela Hill strongly believes
in gospel music. Even as a
young child, she played piano
for church choirs, traveled
the country singing in school
choruses, and developed
her songwriting and musical
performance skills. Angela
received her B.A. in Music
Education from Howard University in Washington, D.C.,
with a double minor in Piano Studies and Dance Studies.
Angela has several albums to her credit as both a vocalist
and a writer/producer, including an album with the R&B
group XL, and an album with the gospel group, Highest
Praise; as well as countless nightclub performances as a
vocalist for jazz, blues, and country ensembles. Currently
Angela serves as Musical Director and pianist for two
churches in Maryland, and performs as a member of the
metropolitan area-based gospel group, UVP.
STEVE JAMES - MANDOLIN/SLIDE/GUITAR
Steve James is a well-known
name among devotees of
contemporary acoustic folk
and blues; this notoriety is
based on numerous critically
acclaimed recordings, a tireless
international tour schedule
and a sheaf of published work
including articles, lessons and
books for Acoustic Guitar/String
Letter and instructional DVDs for Homespun. He’s a
veteran of many music camps and workshop programs,
including Centrum Blues Week, where he’s been part
of the staff more than a dozen times since 1994.
Steve has worked with a variety of artists from Furry
Lewis and Bo Diddley to Bad Livers and film director
Richard Linklater. He’s been heard on “A Prairie Home
Companion”, NPR’s “Morning Edition” and many other
syndicated programs.
6

ORVILLE JOHNSON - SLIDE GUITAR/DOBRO
Orville Johnson has a
gift for finding the secret
ingredient that makes a
song sound letter-perfect,
whether it’s an R&B tune
from New Orleans, a
country blues or a jazz
ballad. He moved to Seattle
in 1978, where he was a founding member of the
much-loved and well-remembered folk/rock group, the
“Dynamic Logs.” Other musical associates include Laura
Love, Ranch Romance, and the Filé Gumbo Zydeco
Band; and he’s shared the stage with artists such
as Doc Watson, Bonnie Raitt and John Lee Hooker.
Orville’s guitar, dobro, and quavering, honeyed vocals
have been featured on more than a hundred recordings,
soundtracks and countless TV and radio commercials.

ARTHUR MIGLIAZZA - PIANO
Arthur Migliazza was born in
Hyattsville, Maryland, and began
taking classical piano lessons
at age nine. Inspired by his
immense talent, blues piano
luminaries such as Ann Rabson,
Mr. B, and the great New Orleans
keyboard master Henry Butler
have all taken Arthur under their
collective wing. In 2005, Arthur
was awarded the Tucson Area
Music Award for Best Keyboardist, and in 2010 he was
inducted into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame. During
the past several years, Arthur has been featured on
the Cincinnati Blues Fest’s Arches Piano Stage multiple
times, and has taught blues piano at Augusta Blues
Week in Elkins, West Virginia, and at Centrum.

REV. ROBERT B. JONES - GUITAR
Robert B. Jones was born
in Detroit, Michigan in 1956.
By the age of 17, Robert had
already amassed a record
collection of early blues and
begun to teach himself guitar
and harmonica. By his midtwenties, Robert was hosting an
award winning radio show called
“Blues From The Lowlands,”
and, concentrating primarily on
traditional acoustic blues, started performing at some of
Detroit’s best music venues including the Soup Kitchen
Saloon, The Ark, and Sully’s. Influenced by legendary
bluesman Willie Dixon, Robert developed an educational
program called “Blues For Schools,” which has taken
him into classrooms all over the country. He eventually
reshaped the program into “American Roots Music In
Education” (ARMIE), a program that could encompass
a wider variety of music including spirituals, gospel and
folk songs. Recently, Rev. Jones presented his ARMIE
program at venues in the United States, Canada,
England and Germany.

JOHN MILLER - GUITAR

JIMMI MAYES - PERCUSSION
In 1965 Jimmi Mayes worked
as drummer for Joey Dee and
the Starlighters. He was called
on to find a new guitar player
for the band and reeled in
session player Maurice James
(Jimi Hendrix). Shortly thereafter
Hendrix formed the Jimi Hendrix
Experience but still managed to
meet and jam in the recording
studio numerous times with
Mayes, producing several recordings including “Georgia
Blues” which appeared on “Martin Scorsese Presents
the Blues.” His résumé includes work with many artists
including James Brown, Martha (Reeves) and the
Vandellas, Jimmy Reed, Tommy Hunt of the Flamingos,
Marvin Gaye, Frankie Lymon, The Shirelles and Little
Walter.

John Miller has had a
forty-year career as a
professional musician
thus far, achieving acclaim
as a solo and ensemble
guitarist, composer and
teacher in a variety of
styles, including country
blues, old-time, jazz and
Brazilian. By the time he was 27, John had released five
solo albums to international critical acclaim. For the past
15 years, John has continued to perform in a variety of
styles, but has returned again and again to the country
blues that were his first love, releasing 10 instructional
DVDs focusing on that music. He has just released his
second trio recording with Seattle-based colleagues –
Grant Dermody and Orville Johnson – entitled Deceiving
Blues.
DEAN MUELLER - BASS
Dean is originally from
Chicago, and had played
electric bass since he was
a kid. He picked up the
upright bass as an adult
and now wows audience
with either instrument. A
fixture in the Pacific Northwest blues scene – Dean
frequently performs at the Port Townsend Acoustic
Blues Festival and has accompanied blues performers
such as John Cephas, Phil Wiggins and Louisiana
Red. Now based in Portland, Dean was a member of
the popular group The Insomniacs. In addition, he has
performed with such Northwest blues legends as Jimi
Bott, Paul Delay, Curtis Salgado, Duffy Bishop, and
Lloyd Jones.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Port Townsend Acoustic Blues Festival
JENNY PETERSON – PIANO
A native of Port Townsend,
Jenny Peterson began her
blues career at the age of
7 hanging around on the
porch at Building 204 with
the notable blues musicians
who were attending the
Port Townsend Acoustic
Blues Festival. Jenny grew
up studying classical piano and playing at her local
church, but has always been drawn to the blues. Over
the years, she has been inspired by various Centrum
artists including Daryl Davis, Ann Rabson, Erwin Helfer,
and Arthur Migliazza. For the last four years she has
been attending St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota,
where she is a member of the jazz band, accompanies
dance classes and continues to play the blues.
ANN RABSON – PIANO
Ann Rabson has been
playing and singing the
blues professionally since
1962. She performs
solo and with various
bands, including ad hoc
ensembles known as
The Annimators. For 25
years she was a member
of Saffire—The Uppity
Blues Women. Ann has toured Australia, Belgium,
Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece,
Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa,
Spain, and Switzerland, performing solo, with Saffire,
and with piano legend Erwin Helfer. In 2011 Ann
received her ninth nomination for a Blues Music Award
(formerly W.C. Handy Award) as Traditional Blues
Female Artist of the Year. In 2008 she was nominated
for Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year; her first
solo album, Music Makin’ Mama, was nominated for
Album of the Year in both the Traditional Blues and
Acoustic Blues categories; and her composition,
“Elevator Man” was nominated for Song of the Year.
LAUREN SHEEHAN, GUITAR
Lauren grew up in New
England where she
studied classical guitar
as a child and became
infected by the spirit of
fiddle music at contra
dances in western
Massachusetts. She wrote
her thesis on American folk music at Reed College
before spending a number of years playing in small
ensembles while founding, administering, and teaching
in independent schools. During this time, she toured in
New England, Ireland and the Pacific Northwest. She
retired from teaching in 2003 and dedicated herself
to full-time performing and recording. One look at her
website shows the variety of club, concert, and festival
dates she performs, in solo, duo, and trio configurations
and with the old blues band Eagle Ridin’ Papas.
Lauren’s passion for learning directly from other
Wednesday, July 25, 2012

musicians has led her into the homes and front porches
of the musical legends who passed on much of the
material and stylistic qualities she presents today. Her
endearing performances spring from time spent with
such legendary performers as John Cephas, Ginny
Hawker, Etta Baker, Carl Rutherford and Howard
Armstrong. She enjoys recalling the twinkle in John
Jackson’s eye when the two of them sat alone together
in an old school house and he taught her “Come On
Over to My House”.
TIM SPARKS – GUITAR
Tim Sparks taught himself
to play the music he heard
around him: traditional
country blues and the
gospel his grandmother
played on piano in a
small church in the Blue
Ridge Mountains. At 14,
Tim was nominated for
a scholarship at the prestigious North Carolina School
of the Arts. There he studied the classics with Segovia
protégé Jesus Silva while continuing to play all kinds of
music, increasingly turning to classic jazz for inspiration.
He adapted compositions by Jelly Roll Morton, Scott
Joplin, and Fats Waller to the guitar, frequently reducing
piano arrangements to their essence. In recent years,
Sparks’ musical focus has come full circle, returning
to the country blues and classic jazz that served as a
springboard for his worldwide guitar explorations.
ELIJAH WALD - GUITAR / BLUES HISTORY
Elijah Wald spent many years
hitchhiking and performing all
over North America and Europe,
as well as much of Asia and
Africa, including several months
studying with the Congolese
guitar masters Jean-Bosco
Mwenda and Edouard Masengo
in eastern Zaire. In the early
1980s, Elijah began writing for
The Boston Globe, and was in
charge of the newspaper’s “world music” coverage for
most of the 1990s, as well as contributing articles to
various other newspapers and magazines. His books
include Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the
Invention of the Blues, Josh White: Society Blues, Global
Minstrels: Voices of World Music, Dave Van Ronk’s
memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street, and River of
Song: Music Along the Mississippi.

LIGHTNIN’ WELLS – GUITAR/UKELELE
North Carolina musician
Lightnin’ Wells breathes
new life into the vintage
tunes of the 1920s and
depression-era America.
Lightnin’ produced the first
commercial recordings of
the North Carolina blues
veterans Big Boy Henry, Algia
Mae Hinton and George
Higgs. He has traveled and
performed extensively with these musicians and has
documented their backgrounds and musical histories
for future generations. Lightnin’ is a life-long student and
devotee of the pioneering performers in the Piedmont
blues tradition which once thrived in the Carolinas,
including such artists as Blind Boy Fuller, Rev. Gary
Davis and Elizabeth Cotton. Most recent CD releases
include Shake ‘Em on Down and Jump Little Children:
Old Songs for Young Folks which was designed with the
younger listener in mind.
PHIL WIGGINS – HARMONICA
During the early years
of his development as a
musician, Washington,
D.C. native Phil Wiggins
was constantly playing
with and learning from
some of the most notable
acoustic blues musicians
in the Washington area,
including Flora Molten,
Wilber “Chief” Ellis, John Jackson, John Cephas,
and others. He was mentored as well by many other
musicians who frequented the D.C. area, including
Sunnyland Slim, Henry Townsend, John Dee Holeman,
Algia Mae Hinton, Howard Armstrong, Etta Baker, and
others. In 1976 he met and joined with Chief Ellis on
piano, John Cephas on guitar, and James Bellamy on
bass to form Ellis and the Barrelhouse Rockers. Not long
after, Phil and John Cephas formed the duo Cephas
and Wiggins. As ambassadors of the Piedmont blues,
Cephas and Wiggins took their music all over America
and the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Sydney
Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, and the White House.
Phil was the Artistic Director of the Port Townsend
Acoustic Blues Festival 2004-2009.

Enter to Win!
2 Nights at
The Inn at
Waterfront Place*
Have a soda fountain treat or
take home a couple quarts of our
artisan ice cream (we sell bags
that keep it frozen). While you’re
here, enter to win two nights
in our fully furnished condo
overlooking the Bay!

Los Lobos
Sunday, August 12, 7:30 PM
McCurdy Pavilion
Louie Perez - Drums, Guitars, Percussion, Vocals
Steve Berlin - Saxophone, Percussion, Flute, Midsax,
Harmonica, Melodica
Cesar Rosas - Vocals, Guitar, Mandolin
Conrad Lozano - Bass, Guitarron, Vocals
David Hidalgo - Vocals, Guitar, Accordion, Percussion, Bass,
Keyboards, Melodica, Drums, Violin, Banjo
Cougar Estrada - Drums/Percussion
Since 1974, East L.A.’s Los Lobos have been exploring the artistic and commercial
possibilities of American biculturalism, moving back and forth between their Chicano
roots and their love of American rock & roll. Although the band first gained fame as part
of the early-Eighties roots-rock revival, they didn’t so much strip music down as mix it
up, playing norteño, blues, country, Tex-Mex, ballads, folk and rock. They have been
guests on albums by Ry Cooder, Elvis Costello, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Roomful of
Blues, and Paul Simon, and their music has been featured in films such as La Bamba and
Desperado.
Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano, David Hidalgo, and Louie Perez, four friends from
East L.A.’s Garfield High School, formed Los Lobos (Spanish for “the Wolves”) to play
weddings and bars in their neighborhood. Although they had previously played in
straightforward American rock bands, together they decided to experiment with acoustic
folk instruments and explore their Mexican heritage, playing norteño and conjunto music
on instruments including the guitarron and bajo sexto. They got their first full-time gig in
1978, playing at a Mexican restaurant in Orange County. That year they also released
their debut album, Just Another Band From East L.A.
The Blasters became fans and urged Slash Record to sign Los Lobos. Their second
LP, ...And a Time to Dance (1983), was produced by T-Bone Burnett and Blasters
saxophonist Steve Berlin. Its divergent collection of dance songs included the 70-year-old
Mexican Revolution song “Anselma,” which won a Grammy in 1983 for Best MexicanAmerican Performance.
Berlin joined Los Lobos for How Will the Wolf Survive? a much-praised album whose
title track later became a country hit for Waylon Jennings. The album marked the first time
Los Lobos entered the Billboard Top 200. They followed with By the Light of the Moon,
an album that featured several socially and politically conscious songs about life in the
barrio.
In 1987 Los Lobos recorded several Ritchie Valens songs for the soundtrack to the
Valens biopic La Bamba. The soundtrack went double-platinum, and the success of the
title track and Come On, Let’s Go suddenly lifted Los Lobos out of their bar-band, critics’
fave status. They took a noncommercial detour with La Pistola y el Corazón featuring
the traditional Mexican music they had played in the late Seventies. The public largely
overlooked the album, though it earned the band their second Grammy.
On The Neighborhood they returned to more rocking material, working with John

Hiatt, The Band’s Levon Helm, and drummer Jim Keltner. The album’s title paid homage
to the deep connections the band still felt with East L.A. In 1991, Hidalgo and Perez
wrote songs with the Band for that group’s reunion album. The material inspired Kiko, an
evocative, avant-Latin-pop album produced by Mitchell Froom. In 1993 Slash released
a 20-year-anniversary retrospective of Los Lobos songs. The two-disc set, Just Another
Band From East L.A.: A Collection includes material from the band’s debut LP, rare
B-sides, live tracks, and the band’s hit singles.
Latin Playboys (1994), a self-titled album by an ad hoc group consisting of Hidalgo,
Perez, Froom, and Tchad Blake, was a cross between the music of Los Lobos and
Captain Beefheart. The muscular funk rock of Los Lobos’ next album, Colossal Head split
the difference between Kiko and Latin Playboys.
In 1998 Rosas and Hidalgo released Los Super Seven as part of a loose-knit Latin
supergroup of the same name that included Freddy Fender, Joe Ely, and accordion ace
Flaco Jiménez, among others. In 2001, they released Canto, which included vocalists
Raul Malo of the Mavericks and Caetano Veloso. In 1999 Rosas released Soul Disguise,
a gritty, R&B-inflected solo record. For his part, Hidalgo teamed up with ex–Canned Heat
guitarist Mike Halby as Houndog for a self-titled blues album.
After this spate of side projects, Los Lobos returned to the studio to record This Time,
the final installment in a trilogy of heady, groove-rich albums (alongside Kiko and Colossal
Head) exploring Mexican folklore and mysticism. In 2001 they were honored with the
Billboard Century Award.
For their next record, the back-to-basics Good Morning Aztlán, they brought in British
producer John Leckie, who had worked with Public Image Ltd. and Radiohead. 2004’s
The Ride featured an all-star cast of guest artists including Tom Waits, Elvis Costello,
Mavis Staples, and Richard Thompson. In 2009, Rhino Records released the greatest
hits collection, Wolf Tracks: The Best of Los Lobos, a concise 20-song retrospective
collection, which was followed by The Town and the City. 2009
saw the band at its softest side on the children’s record Los Lobos
Goes Disney, a collection of reworked Disney classics. Los Lobos’
newest recording is Tin Can Trust, which was nominated for
a
Grammy Award for Best Americana Album.
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